There’s nothing more glorious than a redemption run after having the confidence knocked out of you. And today was redemption day.
We headed out to my happy place at Gunpowder Falls for 12 miles. We took the pink trail which starts with a climb. I settled in with my mid-pack but then something happened at about mile 2 or 3. It clicked. Continue reading
On Saturday, when I realized as I was driving to meet my friends to carpool to our 22 mile run that I still had my slippers on, I knew it was going to be one of those days. I made a quick call and sent a messages to my crew that I had to turn around. We had planned on meeting at 6:45 am, but they were kind enough to wait for me and I’m glad they did.
I woke up feeling great. I got enough sleep…although wearing my slippers out the door has me questioning that…and my mental game was on. As we started running, I quickly settled in the middle. Once again, I tried my best to keep up with the fast kids, but I just couldn’t keep up. Continue reading
I usually have no problems with writing my end of year post. It typically flows right through me. But this year, I’ve seem to be plagued with writers block. Do you know when you have so much to say that you just can’t say anything? Well, that’s me. All. Year. Long.
I had a pretty big year in the world of racing. Actually, while I ran less races this year, the races I did run were pretty epic. Continue reading
I died three times on the HAT Run 50K course yesterday. Maybe even four. And in my time of dying, I managed to pull out a PR. I had an unofficial time of 7:04 compared to 7:52 last year. Kendra had asked me if I had planned on shooting for a PR earlier in the week and I said it was a game day decision. Well, I woke up and said, hell…let’s PR. I initially had a goal of 7:00 set in my head, but by the end of the first big loop (mile 17-ish), I was on pace for a 6:30 finish time…and while I fought the mud I was feeling GOOD! Continue reading
It’s hard to believe that this time last year I was prepping for my very first ultramarthon. I had no idea that a year later that the same race will turn into just a little ol’ training run to prepare for longer distances ahead. So much can happen during the course of a year…SO MUCH! Continue reading
Well, sort of. We had our last long training run with the group today, but most of the group wasn’t there. It was cold and rainy and most folks did their own thing. I, however, needed this run. It’s been weeks since I had a good trail run and while I was “meh” about the rain initially, I looked forward to the cleansing I was going to get from Mother Nature. We still have a few runs scheduled through to the HAT RUN 50K race day this coming weekend, but I’ll be going out on my own as I concentrate on the North Face 50-Miler coming up next month. Continue reading
It’s been exactly two weeks since I completed the JFK50 miler. Going into the race, I swore that I would take off of running and start back again in January. I was burnt out physically and mentally of non-stop training over the past…well geez…I guess it’s three years now. I was content with giving it a break and was looking forward to it. Continue reading
This is probably the longest post I have ever written. Hopefully I don’t bore you with the details. You might be better off saving this as a bathroom read. Hoping the pictures will break up the monotony of my writing.
When I woke up on race day I was anxious. I had everything laid out but I couldn’t get my act together. So, I started with coffee. For me, coffee gets “things” moving in the morning and after all of the food I ate yesterday, “things” needed to move. I was still full from everything I ate but I prepared my morning breakfast of two eggs and an egg white scrambled and a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies anyway (hey, they said eat the cookies). Continue reading
I don’t even know where to begin, but I guess I’ll start with my pre-race day prep. All week I was doing what I could to make sure that I was hydrated by drinking coconut water, which I don’t particularly care for, Gatorade, and of course, water. I was also trying to eat whole nutritious foods to carb up. According to Jeremy Hoefs of Livestrong.com, “Marathon runners follow a carb-loading approach to nutrition during race week and the day before the marathon. This temporary diet change calls for an increased carb intake that results in your body filling the muscle glycogen stores that supply energy as you run.” Continue reading
It’s official. These past few days I settled in to the taper blues losing my motivation and excitement for the race. We had a nice 1 hour and 45 minute run on the course on Saturday and it was tough. No, really…it was HARD! My Achilles were very tight and the hills might as well have been mountains. Parts of the course were very slippery and the mud, well you know how I feel about mud. How am I going to run 50K like this??? I don’t feel prepared. I know that I am, but I just don’t feel it. Continue reading
So What? I run. 